The Right Light
by greenikat89
Summary: Oneshot: Cloud just wanted his Light. He was entitled to it now that the worlds were restored. And yet he couldn't find anyone until an oblivious Leon came along with three plotting women. Defeating Sephiroth was a cake walk compared to them. Cloud/Leon


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts of anything in relation to it.

A/N: This is beta'd by the wonderful _Novelist Pup._ (Who I also give credit for the title.) This was inspired by all the 'Cloud searching for his Light' fiction as well as the Cloud/Leon fans out there.

Warnings: Language, yaoi, Cloud torture, slight OOC.

* * *

Cloud was not pouting. He was brooding, a very manly brood he might add, as he stared at the piece of paper held in his hands. It was a list of names he'd drawn up titled 'My Light' and a neat little X next to every single line. It was depressing, actually, and Cloud wondered where he went wrong. After he had vanquished his Darkness (finally, that silver haired bastard just wouldn't _die)_, he should have been able to receive his Light. Hell, he was entitled to it after all the fucked up things he'd been put through. And yet here he was, Lightless, and brooding in the corner of Aerith's kitchen.

He sighed and looked at the list of names he'd drawn up of every female he could think of. Aerith was at the top of the list. He'd fought to avenge her for most of his life and they went way back as friends, which was exactly what they were, friends. That was okay with Cloud as Aerith was more like a sister to him than a potential lover and incest wasn't really his thing.

Tifa had been added but quickly crossed off due to the fact she already had a boyfriend and she was scary as hell. Cloud still remembered the time he'd pissed her off for an offhanded comment he'd made about the bar she ran. He still couldn't touch a drink without cringing in fear that she might have done something to it. Tifa was a force to be reckoned with, especially when it came to mixing drinks.

Yuffie barely even crossed his mind before Cloud had slammed down on that idea. The little ninja was way too young not to mention she made him want to commit homicide most of the time for her peppy attitude. Aside from the fact she was a rabid yaoi fan and Cloud wouldn't doubt she'd take pictures of him naked and sell them for her own perverted pleasures.

That left him with a list of two names, three if he counted Yuffie (which he didn't), and thus the whole pouting thing. His life sucked, but hey, it wasn't his fault he didn't know that many females. First it was the whole SOLDIER thing and then Sephiroth going crazy followed by the Darkness taking over the worlds and then Sephiroth again. Did he mention Sephiroth? It kind of killed any time he might have had to socialize, and Yuffie was always fond to tell him he had the stunted social graces of a rock.

Cloud rested his chin in his hand, gnawing on the end of a pen as he tried to think of any more names to add to the list. Unfortunately he kept drawing a blank and Cloud was about to crumple up the paper in exasperation and just consign himself to a Lightless life. He could always buy a dog, he liked dogs, and didn't they give unconditional love?

The door to the kitchen swung open and Cloud glanced up to see Aerith walk in with a bag of groceries in her arm. She raised her eyebrows at the blond sitting morosely in the corner as she set the bag on the counter. "Are you pouting?"

Cloud resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he sat up from the slouched position in his seat. "I'm not pouting, Aerith, I'm _brooding_."

Aerith smothered a smile as she began to put away the food. "I assume your quest for finding your Light isn't going too well," she murmured.

The blond sighed and looked down at his very sad looking list. "No," he mumbled. "I thought it was supposed to be easy."

Aerith patted her friend on the back as she walked by, ruffling his blond spikes. "Well what do you expect?" she asked. "Some type of sign saying 'I am your Light'?"

"…No," Cloud muttered sullenly although really that was exactly what he was thinking. It would have made his search so much easier to do. His train of thought was broken when a bright light almost rendered him blind. He squinted and turned his face towards the living room where the light was coming from and nearly felt his heart stop. There standing in the doorway illuminated by a heavenly light was the person meant for him.

"I have found my Light," he whispered awestruck as he gazed at the figure. He couldn't really make out the person aside from a lithe silhouette and shoulder length hair, but Cloud knew that was his Light. He could almost hear angels singing in the background that sounded suspiciously like Yuffie. Oh, if only he could hear this paragon of beauty speak to hear his name from their lips.

"Oh, hello Leon," Aerith greeted and Cloud's world came crashing down around his ears. "Thanks for fixing that light for me."

The blond watched as Leon finished screwing in the light bulb, flicking off the light switch before entering into the kitchen. "No problem," he answered as he set his toolbox down on the counter. He barely spared the blond in the corner a glance before flicking them back to the brunette. "Was there anything else you wanted?"

Aerith pursed her lips in thought before shaking her head with a sunny smile on her face. "Not at the moment, but you could check with Tifa. I heard she's had some trouble with the pipes in her bar." Leon made a grunt of agreement before picking up his toolbox. "Thanks for your help, Leon," Aerith called after the man before the backdoor swung shut behind him.

She waited for Leon's footsteps to fade off into the distance before turning to look at the horrified blond in the corner with a smirk fixed firmly in place. "Oh, if only I could hear this paragon of beauty speak to hear my name from their lips?" she teased with a raised eyebrow, smirk widening at the blush that crawled across Cloud's face. "I didn't know you were such a poet, Cloud."

The man dropped his head in his hands with a groan as he tried to hide his embarrassment. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Aerith, please, I'm having a crisis. I think Leon's my Light."

"And?" she asked as she propped her hip against the counter. "He's young, attractive, and caring despite the stoic attitude he portrays. He'd be good for you."

"Good for me? Aerith, he's not a dog," Cloud groaned, trying to banish away the image of Leon in a collar and dog ears that had immediately sprung to mind. He ran a hand through his spikes as he tried to tell himself not to think about it. He wasn't even sure if Leon was gay. "I bet you'd just love it if we got together, Yuffie would have a heart attack trying to take pictures to sell."

Aerith shrugged, a smile playing on her lips as she sat down next to Cloud. "Don't tell me you aren't interested. I've seen you eye Leon's leather clad butt more than once."

Okay, so maybe he had just a little but come on, who wouldn't? Those were some sinfully tight leather pants and it didn't help his eyes kept locking onto the many belts the brunette wore and think up ways to use them. "So what am I going to do?" he asked as he leaned back in his chair. Once he got over his initial shock, he conceded that Aerith had a point. Why hadn't he thought of Leon before? It wasn't like he was adverse to the idea of being with another male. He'd done his share of experimentation back when he was a SOLDIER and Zack hadn't been _just _a friend to him.

"Go after him," Aerith answered simply. "He's your Light, so you should probably do something before he gets taken by someone else. Leon _is _quite the looker after all and many people would love to date him."

Cloud's eyes narrowed angrily as clenched his fists, unknowingly crumpling the paper in his hands. "The hell they will," he spat out. As if someone would take his Light away, Leon was _his_ and he'd show everyone.

The blond was already on his feet and out the door before he knew it, stalking down the path Leon had taken into town. He didn't see the knowing smirk in Aerith's eyes or when she picked up the phone to call Yuffie. He might have been afraid if he did.

--

"Okay, I've had enough," Tifa said firmly as she slammed down the mug she'd been cleaning on the counter. "You've been alternately glaring at my customers and staring off into space with this weird look on your face ever since you walked through my doors." She leaned her forearms against the counter across from Cloud. "Is it Sephiroth? I thought you were over that when you beat him. Please don't tell me you're sliding back into that emo mood from before," she pleaded.

Cloud lifted an eyebrow in mild amusement as he leaned back against the bar stool he was sitting on, his eyes never stopping their sweep around the room. "Emo mood?"

Tifa roller her eyes as she picked up the glass to clean again with her dishtowel. "Yuffie's term. I'd say monosyllable, moody little bastard but I think Leon's got that covered."

"He's not moody," Cloud defended quickly, gaze flicking over to Tifa.

"Fine, stoic, whatever," Tifa dismissed with a wave of her hand. "The point is you've been scaring off my customers and making me lose business. Either perk up and tell me what's wrong or I'll kick your skinny butt out of my bar with a bill for all the money you've lost me."

Cloud didn't doubt that either. He's seen his friend take out men nearly twice his size without breaking stride in whatever she was doing. "It's Leon," he said after a time, voice slightly lowered incase anyone was listening. Not that there was, Cloud's bipolar mood had cleared out anyone within shouting distance of the blond. "He's my Light."

"Mmm-hmm," Tifa said unimpressed as she followed Cloud's gaze to the corner of the room where Leon was working on her rattling pipes. The brunet was oblivious to the attention around him as he kneeled by a neatly cut hole in the wall with his tools beside him. "And you've just figured this out now?" She always thought Cloud was a little slow when it came to the obvious. This just proved her point.

Cloud raised his shoulder in a half shrug, a sappy grin curling the corners of his mouth as he looked at the brunette. "It makes sense," he said. "Sephiroth was the embodiment of Darkness. It would take another male to counteract that, someone with a pure heart and strong. Someone wearing leather pants and having the best ass I've ever seen," he trailed off with a decidedly perverse smirk on his face that was similar to the one Yuffie sported.

"I think I liked you better in your emo phase," Tifa said dryly as she filled a mug with beer and slid it across the counter to a customer. "At least you made more sense then."

"Oh come on, just look at him. He's glowing." Cloud waved his hand in Leon's direction where the man was silhouetted against an uncovered window with sunlight surrounding him. "Clearly we were meant to be. Leon starts with L, Light starts with L."

"His name is Squall," Tifa pointed out.

"Leonhart starts with L," Cloud continued unperturbed.

Tifa shot him a look as she swatted the blond with her dishtowel. "You've lost your mind, Cloud. That or you've been reading Yuffie's sappy yaoi novels again." She pulled down a couple bottles from the rack above the bar and mixed a drink for Cloud. "Here, maybe this will clear your head." She nudged the drink by the blonde's arm. "You better pray it does before I take you to Merlin so he can fix your head."

Cloud nodded absently and picked up the drink, toying with the small plastic toothpick as he scanned the room. No way was he going to let someone ogle _his_ Leon. "Hey!" he snapped angrily. "Hey, you!" He wished he hadn't forgotten his sword at home in his haste to trail after Leon. Instead he threw his glass at the man who had been looking at the brunette for longer than normal. "Keep your pervy eyes to yourself!" The man squawked and ducked, the mug shattering against the wall behind him and spraying glass and alcohol everywhere.

The next second Cloud was choking as Tifa grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him off the barstool he was sitting on. "That's it," she said thunderously as she dragged the blond across the floorboards, "get out of my bar before you destroy something else with your temper. And you're paying for that mug!"

Her eyes narrowed in satisfaction as she threw Cloud out the door, watching as he sailed through the air with his arms comically pin wheeling. She huffed, flicking bangs out of her eyes as she stalked back into her bar, noticing how the customers visibly relaxed now that the blond threat was gone. Leon appeared oblivious as he fitted the paneling back into the wall.

"Pipe's fixed," he murmured as he wiped his grease stained hands on a rag. He didn't seem to notice as people skittered away in fear incase the blond decided to come back and kill them all for accidentally touching the brunette.

He blinked when glass crunched under his booted foot. "Trouble with your light?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling to see if a fuse had blown out.

"Not _my _light," Tifa muttered, ducking behind the bar table to grab a broom from under the counter and sweep up the mess. The unaware brunette didn't catch the reference as he grabbed his tools. "Thanks for the repair, Leon," Tifa said gratefully as she turned on her taps and clear water flowed out of them. "Your next drink's on the house."

Leon waved the offer away as he walked out the door with his toolbox in hand. There were still repairs to do on the town that he had to get to, although maybe he would indulge in the offer later with Cloud, if he could find the blond that was. He hadn't seen the man all morning and Leon wondered if Cloud was avoiding him.

Deep in thought, he didn't notice the blond haired man keeping to the shadows and glaring at anything that crossed the brunette's path. Nor did he notice the other, smaller figure that was silently cackling to herself as she followed the pair. It might have saved him the trouble later if he did.

--

"Isn't Cloud taking his 'Light' thing a bit too literal?" Aerith asked as she tended to her flower garden. She leaned against the hoe she was using, sweeping tendrils of loose hair behind her ears. "He's been following Leon all day like an extra shadow. I swear if Cloud attacks anymore people for even looking at 'his' Leon, there'd be no one left in town unscathed."

Yuffie shrugged and shook her head gleefully as she idly swung her legs back and forth. She was sitting perched in a tree branch overhead of the working woman reporting back on the information she'd gathered about Leon and Cloud. "I think it's adorable," she sighed as she fingered the lens of her camera where she'd taken some excellent pictures of the pair. "Squally continues to go about his day fixing up the town, Cloud continues to stalk him in the shadows like the little emo he is glaring at anyone within shouting distance of the man, and all the while sexual tension is building up."

"Oh please," Aerith scoffed lightly as she pulled up some weeds around her bluebells. "Leon is oblivious to the attention and I don't think Cloud is going to tell him anytime soon. He'd probably jump the poor man and attack him in an alleyway before he did."

Yuffie cackled and rubbed her hands together as she envisioned all the pretty pictures she'd take and then sell the copies of. "And this is a bad thing, why? At least Leon's getting some sort of action. No one should be that repressed, especially such a hot piece of man candy like himself."

A faint blush dusted across the bridge of Aerith's nose at the words as she continued to garden, nodding to herself that yes, Yuffie was right. Leon deserved to be happy and have someone take care of him for once instead of running himself ragged trying to fix the town and everyone's problems. Cloud would be good for Leon, if only the stupid blond would tell him.

"Do you think if we gave Cloud a push in the right direction he'd tell Leon?" Aerith questioned. She'd seen the way Leon looked at Cloud when the blond wasn't looking, and both men were dancing around the issue that they were perfect together. Aerith couldn't think of anyone else who'd put up with Cloud acting like a possessive bastard. And Leon, well, that man really needed to get laid.

Yuffie snorted and hopped down from her perch to land next to Aerith. "More than interested, Aerith. Cloudy's been sending looks of 'I want to screw Leon on the nearest flat surface' all day since I've been following them."

Aerith raised her eyebrows in surprise as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, unknowingly leaving a smudge of dirt there. "I'm surprised Cloud has so much self control."

"Me too," Yuffie agreed. "Then again Cloud's almost as repressed as Squall. At this rate Squally will continue to blunder along and Cloudykins will glare and stare and think pervy thoughts."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Aerith asked while she stripped off her gardening gloves and tossed them into the small wheelbarrow next to her.

Yuffie's eyes sparkled with excitement as hundreds of schemes flashed across her mind at lightening speed. "Leave that to me, Aerith," she promised, a manic grin stretching across her face as she scampered down the dirt path that led back to her house. No doubt to put her master plan into action.

Aerith watched the girl go with amusement, half-wondering if she shouldn't have employed Yuffie to spy on the pair. Then again, Tifa had complained how Cloud was ruining her business and she'd heard the townspeople terrified of 'a scary blond man with a huge sword' popping up around town wherever Leon was. Perhaps it would be good for Yuffie to plan it out, if for no other reason than having pictures of what a cute couple the pair would make.

--

Cloud had never feared for his life before, even when he had faced off against Sephiroth as the world was being torn apart by Darkness. Of course there was a first time for everything and Cloud could feel himself break out in a cold sweat as fear caused his stomach to knot up in terror. He tried not to flinch at the twin glares Tifa and Aerith were giving him as they loomed in front of him, forcing him into a stiff backed chair.

"Okay Cloud, it looks like we're going to do this the hard way," Tifa said dangerously as she tightened the ropes that bound his wrists to the arms of the chair. "I thought you would have grown some balls after I threw you out of my bar this morning to tell Leon why you're acting like an idiot." Cloud tried not to choke as Tifa readjusted the dishtowel they had shoved in his mouth to gag him. "I guess I was wrong."

"You're making the town nervous," Aerith continued in a pleasant tone as she casually sliced up tomatoes by the sink. Cloud should have been disturbed that the woman seemed unconcerned that a person was being held hostage in her kitchen, but he was distracted. The low lights of the kitchen made the blade gleam and Cloud's eyes were locked onto the shining knife dripping with blood-red juice. "By the way they're acting, it's like they fear another Heartless attack."

"And you're making Leon edgy. He doesn't realize _you're _the one the town is afraid of." Tifa sent him a glare as she viciously tightened the knots and Cloud let out a pained whimper through his gag. Aerith ignored him for the moment as she chopped up vegetables into a pot and Cloud kept a careful watch on her. Frankly, the woman terrified him when she was angry, and the way she was chopping up tomatoes like body parts was making him incredibly apprehensive.

He recoiled as Aerith moved closer to him with the knife gripped loosely in her hand. "You can't keep threatening people around town, Cloud," the woman said as she pointed the tip of the blade at him. "Leon's trying so hard to restore the town and make everyone happy. It would be unfortunate if all his hard work was destroyed by people fearing for their lives."

The blade lightly scraped against the tip of his nose and a thin line of tomato pulp smeared against his skin and dripped down into his lap. Cloud didn't care that his clothes were getting dirty and that he'd likely never eat tomatoes again after this. What he wanted was for Aerith to get away from him, especially when she looked as pissed as she did right now.

"We wouldn't want that, would we?" Aerith murmured. The knife caught the light again and Cloud desperately nodded his head in agreement because _oh God_, the blade was close enough to take his eye out.

Cloud made a muffled sound through his gag and Aerith raised an eyebrow in question. "What was that?" she asked pleasantly as she pulled out the rag that had been none-too-gently stuffed in the man's mouth earlier.

The blond sucked in a gasp of fresh air, trying to get the taste of cleaning supplies and pinewood out of his mouth from the dishrag Tifa had gagged him with. He attempted to steady his beating heart now that the knife had been safely moved away and glared at the women. "I said I haven't done anything wrong," the man protested against his better judgment but _dammit_, he needed to reassert his very badly damaged manly pride. "Do you _want _people to take advantage of him -- OW!" he broke off in a pained yelp when Tifa punched him in the arm.

"It's called being friendly, you idiot!" Tifa snapped as she tried to keep a hold of her temper. Honestly, what did Leon _see _in that moron? "Look," she said as she leaned against the kitchen counter, leveling a hard look at Cloud, "as far as we're concerned, you have no claim over Leon. He can be free to act friendly or flirt or even _have sex_ with anyone he damn well pleases."

"Oh like hell!" Cloud snarled, nearly over tipping the chair in his rage at the image of someone taking away his Light. He just barely managed to duck his head as Tifa took another swipe at him.

"Then tell him Cloud," Aerith said firmly as she pushed the chair upright. "We want Leon to be happy and we know he'd be happy with you."

By now Tifa had circled around his chair to grip the back of it and tip it backwards so he was looking up into her face. "If you fuck this up, then _we_ won't be happy. And if _we're_ not happy, then you can bet your ass that _you _won't be either," Tifa hissed with a malicious gleam in her eyes. "And all those little fantasies in your head about the two of you together will be just that-- fantasies, because you won't get another chance to get at Leon again for a_ very long time._"

What little left of his manly pride was promptly wiped out at Tifa's threat and Cloud whimpered. He could feel his stomach coil up in fear at the thought of not seeing his Light. Knowing the women and how much they protected the brunette, that could mean no Leon for months. Cloud didn't think he could handle that. Hell, he was starting to feel withdrawal from the two hours they'd strapped him in the chair.

"Are we clear?" Aerith asked as she finished slicing up the tomatoes and scraped them into a bowl. She shot him a pointed look as she moved onto the cucumbers beside her. She picked up a particularly interesting looking one before chopping it in half with way more force than Cloud thought was necessary.

The subtle meaning wasn't lost on the blond and Cloud tried not to flinch again. He didn't think his pride could suffer any more abuse. "Yes," he said meekly and bowed his head as he tried to figure out _how _he had been successfully coerced by two women. "Now untie me so I can go find him." _And get away from you_, he added silently to himself.

"Excellent," Aerith said with a smile as Tifa quickly untied him with a few well-placed jerks.

The ropes slithered to the floor and Cloud let out a startled yelp as Tifa roughly hauled him up out of the kitchen chair. "Tell us all about it when you get back, lover boy," the woman cooed with false sweetness as she literally booted the man out of Aerith's house.

"Oh, and we're having vegetable soup for dinner!" Aerith called out in an airy tone right before the door slammed behind him.

"Shit," Cloud muttered as he stumbled out of the house, feeling as if he'd just escaped with his life. Sephiroth had just been knocked down a couple pegs from his nightmare list and Tifa and Aerith had tied for first. That man had nothing when it came to those women and protecting 'their' Leon.

Shakily walking under the shade of a huge oak tree, Cloud wondered where the third party of the Leon Fan Club was and found it odd that Yuffie wasn't leading it. He'd caught glimpses of the ninja following him around town while he followed Leon, but he hadn't done anything about it. Cloud had a feeling he should have kept a closer watch on the girl. His feelings were correct when a pair of slender arms dropped down from above and yanked him into the tree.

"Hiya Cloudy!" Yuffie chirped as she deposited the startled blond onto the branch next to her. "I'm here to help you win your Light over."

Cloud took one look at the mischievous grin stretched across her face and the way she nearly vibrated with energy, making the two buckets beside her rattle together, and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Whatever she was planning didn't bode well for him and Cloud almost whimpered at the look in her eyes. It was almost enough to make him wish his Light were someone else to avoid the nightmares he'd be sure to get later.

Almost.

--

Leon frowned around the nails he held in his mouth as he hammered another one into Merlin's porch. The old wizard had tried using a spell to repair the deck that he'd gotten from King Mickey but somehow it had gone wrong and tried to dismantle the front porch instead. Leon rolled his eyes as he selected another nail and started to hammer it in place. That was the reason why he had declined Merlin's offer to help fix the town with his spells; magic was just too unpredictable. At least the brooms hadn't tried to take apart the entire house.

The steady beat of the hammer against wood stopped as Leon felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. It was almost like he was being watched, but no matter how hard Leon tried he couldn't find anyone suspicious behind him. Actually, the brunette couldn't find anyone around the usually busy town. Normally he couldn't make it down the road without someone stopping him to talk. (Not that he ever did anyways but that never deterred the townsfolk.) It was almost as if he was back when Darkness was still around and people stayed inside for fear of Heartless attacks.

Shrugging off the feeling, Leon finished the porch and put the unused nails back in his tool case. He'd have to varnish the wood later because Aerith had insisted he come over her house to do some repairs that were urgent. She had mentioned something about a kitchen and Yuffie so Leon knew it was pretty serious. The last time the girl had tried to cook in the kitchen she'd managed to weld a toaster to the ceiling. Leon still didn't know how she had managed to accomplish that, but it had taken six months before he'd been able to pry it off.

Leon sighed and picked up his toolbox as he headed back to Aerith's, feeling slightly warm under his leather in the hot sun. He'd never admit that out loud because he'd never hear the end of it from Aerith. The woman was always hinting at getting him new clothes and something a little cooler when he was doing repairs, especially during the summer months. Leon always declined because he liked his leather…and possibly because he wanted to catch a certain blonde's eye. Of course the man was too busy trying to find his Light than notice him and would go off searching for them. It was probably why he hadn't seen the man all day.

Feet crunching up the woodchip pathway to Aerith's house, Leon was almost to the back door when he heard a sharp _crack._ The brunette barely had time to jump back from the heavy tree branch that fell before the man he'd been thinking about suddenly crashed down in front of him in a shower of leaves and broken twigs. Leon raised an eyebrow in surprise as he silently looked from the blond gracelessly sprawled out on the ground to the broken tree limb above him and back again. "Did you just…fall out of a tree?"

Leon couldn't help but notice the light blush that spread across Cloud's face as the man awkwardly got to his feet, muttering something about 'Yuffie' and 'going to kill.' The man looked a little edgy and Leon wondered if Cloud had found his Light yet. By the looks of it the brunette didn't think so and he felt what could have been relief flicker through him.

The blond picked himself up off the ground while brushing the dirt from his clothes. "Leon," Cloud greeted casually as if falling out of trees were a normal occurrence for him. It could have been for all Leon knew since he didn't know much about the blonde's past aside from the Sephiroth part. The blond looked like he was going to say something else but paused, an odd looking passing across his face as if Cloud was coming to a difficult decision.

"I have to go see what Aerith wants," Leon said to break the silence that had stretched out when it became apparent Cloud wasn't going to talk anytime soon. The blond was sure acting odd and the brunette wondered if the stress of finding his Light had gotten to Cloud. "You can go back to…climbing trees," he added doubtfully as he stepped around the man. Maybe the blond was reliving his childhood or something. Whatever made Cloud happy.

"Ah, actually I've been meaning to talk to you," Cloud said hastily as he caught Leon's wrist in a light grip to stop the man. "About my Light."

"And you wanted to talk to me about that?" Leon asked, trying not to notice the feeling of Cloud's slightly calloused fingers against the bare skin of his wrist. He had forgone his own black gloves because of the heat and the messy repair work he'd been doing today.

Cloud sighed and ran his free hand through his hair, dislodging the odd twig or two. "I've found them."

"Oh," Leon said blankly, feeling a slight tightening in his chest that he refused to examine too closely. "I'm…that's good." He didn't really know what to say to that, but Cloud looked happier than he'd been in months and Leon wouldn't begrudge the blond of that. Even when a tiny part of him was distantly hoping he'd have been Cloud's.

The blond nodded distractedly, eyes looking up at the trees for some reason and Leon wondered why Cloud was still here. For weeks the man had been searching for his Light and Leon would have thought the blond would be with them right now instead of talking to him. "Well, if that's all you have to say," Leon trailed off uncertainly as he discreetly tried to tug his arm out of Cloud's grip.

Cloud sighed in frustration. "Wait, I'm not doing this right," he said as he pulled Leon towards him so they were standing face to face. "What I meant was…well Leon…you see," he fumbled and Leon was beyond confused about what Cloud was rambling on about.

"Just tell him already!" someone shouted in annoyance and both men glanced up to see Yuffie sitting in the tree branch directly above them. Leon didn't have time to wonder when the girl had gotten up there as his eyes zeroed in on the huge buckets she held in her hands.

"Yuffie!" Leon squawked as she upended the contents on them, covering him in a white sticky substance. Cloud was in a similar state as his spikes were flattened to his head, a dark brown, almost black liquid covering him from head to toe. "What was that for?"

"What Cloud's been meaning to say all day is that you're the Light to his Darkness," Yuffie huffed from her spot as she eyed the two men below her. "Now you two can _finally_ go at it and screw like bunnies."

"What?!" Leon yelled in shock as he wiped the liquid out of his eyes. What the hell did paint have to do with anything? He looked between himself covered in white and Cloud in a dark paint before he blinked in realization. White and Black. Light and Dark. The Light to Cloud's Darkness.

Oh.

Internally, a voice cheered but that was quickly smothered by outrage as Leon gazed up at Yuffie. "You just ruined my good leather!" he yelled as he jumped up to catch a hold of the mischievous girl.

Yuffie cackled as she danced out of reach of the man. "Don't worry Squally, it's edible paint. I'm sure Cloud can help you with that."

Leon turned his head to see Cloud sporting the biggest leer he'd ever seen. "Why Leon," the man purred as he advanced on the brunette, "you're all dirty. Let me help you get out of those clothes."

"Wait, wait!" Leon exclaimed in a panicked voice, his boots squelching with edible paint as he backed up from the blond. Okay, so he was happy that he was Cloud's Light, but weren't they going a little too fast? "Can't we talk about this?"

"Nope," Cloud said pleasantly as he grabbed the brunette and hauled him over his shoulder. "I've got to prove to everyone that you're mine."

"Cloud!" Leon exclaimed in embarrassment as the blond slapped his butt. The last thing he saw was Yuffie openly laughing at him with a smirk fixed firmly in place before Cloud carried him upstairs to his bedroom and locked the door behind him.

They were preoccupied for the rest of the day as Cloud showed him exactly what being his Light meant.


End file.
